


we've only got today

by goofball46



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, alex gets hurt and maggie is emooooooo, canonverse, no death don't worry, no gays were killed in the making of this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-31
Updated: 2016-10-31
Packaged: 2018-08-28 03:47:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8430610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goofball46/pseuds/goofball46
Summary: alex gets seriously injured protecting maggie. maggie's not the type to worry, but it's different when it's alex, and she's starting to realize that she really does care more than she thinks she does.





	

 

 

  
_You are all I need_  
_And all I can defend_  
_All I need to hold on to_  
_If the world should end  
_ "If The World Should End," Jennifer Damiano

-

Maggie’s not used to worrying about people at _all_ , but this is beyond even that; she’s fucking _terrified_ , her heart in her throat, dread swelling in her chest too tightly to leave room for her lungs.

The thing is, she can still taste the blood in her mouth where she kissed Alex’s forehead; there are still burns on her wrists from where the ropes held her down. She’s not used to feeling helpless, but watching Alex fight for her while she’s tied up and left in a corner made her hands shake with helplessness.

Alex’s boss keeps asking what happened. Apparently all communication with Alex shut off the second she reached the warehouse, but Maggie can’t take her eyes off of the spot where they’d loaded Alex onto a stretcher, into a van, and driven her off. Alex’s boss – Hank, she thinks, though she can’t be bothered to care – has promised she’ll be okay, but Maggie can see in his eyes that he’s just as worried as she is. Every time she opens her mouth to try to recount what happened, she can see Alex in front of her, see the way the alien tossed her around like a rag doll, the way he pierced her shoulders with his eyes – some kind of heat vision or laser vision, Maggie isn’t sure which. She can see Alex fall back, the way her head hit the concrete floor of the warehouse way too hard. She can see the blood pooling beneath her, can hear the rawness of Supergirl’s scream. Supergirl… she had been there, of course. It seems that wherever Alex is, Supergirl is never far behind. That’s something for her to think about later. But this alien had been smart, had seen the connection there. The warehouse was filled with enough Kryptonite that the second Supergirl had tried to fly in, she’d crumpled to the ground instead.

Maggie can’t help but feel that it’s her fault. If she hadn’t let herself get captured, none of this would ever have happened. Alex wouldn’t have tried to be a hero and save her. Alex wouldn’t be unconscious in the back of a government van right now.

A doctor tries to check her for injuries, taking her hands to examine how deeply the ropes cut into her wrists, but Maggie shrugs the doctor off. Hank murmurs something to the doctor, who nods and backs off, and Maggie gives him a grateful look.

“Let me know when you’re ready to talk,” he tells her, and she nods.

“Can you take me back to…” She hesitates, unsure where Alex even is. “Can you take me to her?”

“Of course.” Hank nods, and Maggie is slow to realize that he probably wants her back at their headquarters anyways for questioning.

She barely realizes she’s rubbing at her wrists again until a medic is coming over to pull her hands apart. The deep red where her skin has been rubbed raw is starting to bleed from the pressure of her fingers twisting over it, mimicking the too-tight tug of the rope, and the doctor cleans it with something that stings, then wraps her wrists in a thick layer of gauze followed by a thick wrap to keep it in place. It’s almost too constricting, reminds her too much of being helpless and tied, but she’s still fixated on where Alex disappeared from her sight, so she doesn’t protest.

She stands there, staring, until she hears Hank giving an order to everyone to pack it up. She turns towards him, her eye catching on a spot on the ground as she moves. Her brow furrows slightly as she tries to determine what it is – it’s dark and…

She turns and gags, her vision blurring. She’s not squeamish around blood. It’s just… that’s _Alex’s_ blood, and something about that small distinction makes her stomach turn. All of this is so very out of character for her – she’s never had problems with blood or injury or death (and she hasn’t prayed since her mother stopped making her go to church but she prays now that it won’t come to death) but right now, thinking about Alex broken and bleeding on the ground, her heart clenches.

She’ll have to overanalyze what that means later.

Hank guides her towards a van, gives her a seat in the back. It’s comfortable and she sinks into it, her eyes fluttering shut, the exhaustion from what she’s just been through seeping into her.

She doesn’t wake up until they’re at their destination, and even though it can’t have been more than a twenty-minute ride, her brain feels sharper, like she’s back to herself a little. She follows Hank into a small back room, containing only a table and two chairs.

Hank sits her down at the table, then sits across from her.

“Is Alex okay?”

Hank hesitates. “We’re hopeful for her recovery.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“It’s all I can give you right now.”

Maggie lunges forward across the table, her eyes flashing. “That’s not a god damn answer. Tell me where Alex is. Tell me if she’s okay.”

Hank doesn’t flinch. “Tell me about what happened and I promise we will take you to see Agent Danvers as soon as we can.”

He doesn’t look like he’s lying, and Maggie is _good_ at telling if someone’s a liar. She settles back in her chair. “Okay.” Her gaze drops to her wrists, and she picks at the bandage on her left wrist. He waits until she’s looking at him again to speak.

“Why were you at the warehouse?”

Maggie takes a breath. “It started at the bar. I was looking for anything that might give me a clue about this… case I’m working on.” She waves one hand dismissively; that case doesn’t mean anything anymore. “A homicide. Teen socialite. Probably a revenge killing for some shit her dad did.” Hank doesn’t react. “I was given an address. Told to go there.” She grimaces. “I should’ve known from the beginning that something was off. My sources usually give me more – a story, a face. But I got there and it was this… this warehouse. I was feeling weird about it, so I texted Alex my location. Figured she was high up enough that she might know what it was, if it was anyplace special. It wasn’t, of course. I walked in and there was nothing, so I called her.” She swallows hard. If she hadn’t called Alex, she wouldn’t have dragged her into this mess in the first place. If she hadn’t called Alex, Alex might be there right now instead of bleeding and unconscious in some medical center. Maggie lets out a shaky breath to steady herself. “She picked up but I couldn’t say anything. I was shoved from behind, tackled onto the ground. My phone fell. I think it broke.” She looks up at him for confirmation, having lost the device during the fight. Hank nods. “Yeah, I figured. My hands were tied behind my back.” She raises her two hands, displaying the bandages for him to see. “He was going to kill me or… something. I don’t know. He was angry. Then Alex was there all of a sudden.”

“She told me that she’d received the location of a dangerous alien,” Hank confirms. “We sent her in fully equipped.”

“Right.” Maggie nods. “So she showed up. And she came in guns blazing.” A smile flickers across Maggie face at the way Alex had shown up, perfectly backlit standing in the entrance to the warehouse. She’d seen Maggie tied on the floor and started running towards her, not seeing the alien in the shadows. “The alien had surprise on his side, even though I tried to warn her.” Her voice tightens, and she swallows again. She’d called out Alex’s name, but Alex hadn’t understood that it was a warning until it was too late. “I shouted to warn her, and she turned around but the alien knocked her gun away. It was like the sight of it made him angry. He…” She closes her eyes to block out the scene playing out in her head. “He had some kind of super vision. Like Supergirl’s heat vision but… different. I’ve never seen anything like it. He used it on her. Her shoulder. She screamed.” Alex’s scream still echoes in Maggie’s head, the sound of raw pain. Maggie had screamed too, screamed until her throat hurt. “That’s when Supergirl showed up.” She’d been flying, but looked like she was getting weaker as she got closer. By the time she reached the warehouse she could barely stay upright. “I think there must have been Kryptonite in the warehouse.”

He nods again, but doesn’t provide any detail. Maggie assumes he must have sent Supergirl in as back-up once he lost touch with Alex. “She was so weak. She was almost as helpless as I was. And then the alien threw Alex back against the wall.” Alex had crumpled the second she hit the wall, then fell to the ground unconscious. The sound of her head slamming against the concrete had echoed chillingly around the room, and Maggie’s heart drops when she remembers how the blood had started seeping out from under Alex’s head. “But he dropped a gun when he grabbed her, so when he threw her back, Supergirl grabbed the gun.” She had lunged towards it, her whole body weak and clearly in pain. Her hand had been shaking when she grabbed it. She clearly wasn’t used to having a gun in her hand. Her scream when she had shot the alien had been terrifying. “She shot him and it injured him. He flew off to lick his wounds and that was it.” It had ended too suddenly. He’d be back. Maggie hadn’t been worried about that at the time, though. She’d rushed to Alex’s side, slightly off-balance due to her tied arms. She’d fallen to her knees, leaning down to kiss her forehead, tears wetting Alex’s unmoving face. Supergirl, for her part, had collapsed, her hands still shaky, clearly in pain from the Kryptonite.

“Do you know what kind of alien it was?” Hank asks. Maggie shakes her head. She’s seen a lot of aliens, but nothing like this one.

“No idea.”

A women steps into the room, looks at Maggie for a moment, then moves to whisper to Hank. He listens, then nods. “Detective Sawyer, you can follow me.” He stands and leads her out of the room. She jumps to her feet and follows without question.

Supergirl is waiting for them at their destination. “Maggie,” she starts, then pauses, unsure of what to say. They must have done something to restore her to her full power, because despite her clear exhaustion, she looks every bit the healthy and confident superhero that’s plastered across every magazine and billboard in National City.

“Thank you for saving her,” Maggie says, and Supergirl winces.

“I don’t like guns,” she says, and Maggie nods. Neither does she, but it comes with the job, and Supergirl understands that.

“Is she okay?”

There’s emotion in Supergirl’s eyes when she nods. There’s some kind of connection between Supergirl and Alex, and someday when she’s not scared for Alex’s life, Maggie will have to figure it out.

Maggie pushes into the room, and there’s Alex Danvers in all her glory, still ridiculously beautiful all bruised, stitched-up, and exhausted. Alex lights up when she sees Maggie, her eyes brightening instantly.

“You’re okay,” she croaks out, and Maggie lets out a shaky laugh, moving to sit on the edge of Alex’s bed.

“You’re the one all beat-up, Danvers,” she responds, and Alex smiles.

“What happened to your wrists?” she asks, gesturing to the bandages.

“The rope,” Maggie answers, and it’s so bizarre that Alex is the one checking in on her that she wants to laugh. Alex has never prioritized herself, and it’s clear she’s not about to start now. “Don’t worry about me.” She reaches for Alex, then hesitates. “Can I…” Alex nods slightly, and Maggie gently brushes her fingers over the line of stitches in Alex’s forehead. “Does it hurt?”

“They have me pretty drugged up. I can’t feel much of anything.”  Maggie winces when she sees how the stitches extend back farther than she’d thought. “It’s probably going to scar,” Alex tells her.

“You’ll still be beautiful,” Maggie says softly. Alex reddens at the compliment.

“My arm is broken, too, and my shoulder is covered in burns,” Alex says. “And my leg is fractured. But I’m okay.”

“You saved my life, Danvers.”

“Just doing my job.”

“I’m serious.” Maggie’s eyes flicker down. “You scared me.”

“Don’t worry,” Alex teases. “I won’t tell anyone that Maggie Sawyer actually cares.”

“You better not,” she shoots back, smiling. “Alex…” The use of her first name surprises her enough that she doesn’t respond. “Alex, I don’t _care_. Not like that. It’s not what I do. But… you’re different. I care when it comes to you.”

Alex’s eyes flick down to Maggie’s lips, and she leans forward just slightly before wincing and falling back. “Ow. Fuck.” Maggie grins.

“You just lay back, Danvers,” she says softly, then leans forward to close the gap, pressing her lips gently to Alex’s.

She can feel the scab on Alex’s lip where it was cut in the fight, and she makes sure to be gentle so as to not hurt her. Alex’s mouth is soft and fits perfectly against hers, and Maggie has kissed a lot of girls but it’s never felt like this. Alex’s mouth feels like home, like love and warmth and safety, and the fact that “love” is the first word that came to mind is something else she’ll have to overanalyze later, but right now, she just wants to _feel_ , and damn, does it feel good.

“Mags,” Alex murmurs against her lips, and the nickname makes Maggie’s heart feel fuller than it has in a long time.

“Yeah?” she whispers back, pulling away just slightly.

“Wow,” she breathes, and Maggie gives her a proud smile.

“You’re not so bad, yourself, Danvers,” she teases, and Alex rolls her eyes.

“We should talk.”

Maggie nods. “Not now, though. Right now, you need some rest.” Alex nods, her eyes closing briefly.

“Stay?”

“Of course.”

-

When Kara comes to check on her sister a while later, she finds her curled up in bed with Maggie Sawyer, who’s positioned herself carefully around Alex to avoid putting any pressure on her wounds. They’re both asleep, but Alex looks more peaceful than she has in a long time. Oh, the two of them can expect an inquisition when they wake up – Kara may be Supergirl, but she’s still Alex’s little sister and has a duty to thoroughly interrogate anyone who even thinks about dating her – but for now, they need rest more.

Maggie stirs slightly and blinks sleepy eyes up at Kara. “I’ll take care of her,” she promises, her voice hoarse with sleep, and Kara lets her smile widen. It’s a promise she knows Maggie will keep, and she stays just a moment longer to watch her fall back asleep pressed against Alex before leaving.

**Author's Note:**

> hmu at hearteyesreyes.tumblr.com


End file.
